Study abroad

Another priceless gem from the annals of running summer study abroad to Russia. One of this year's students is a very timid, very unworldly young woman for whom this is the first trip to anywhere distant. nothing like jumping in at the deep end. Convincing her parents to let her go was a three pronged assault: the student herself and me and Yulia who is there leading the group. i was not pleased to see the mom's return address in my email box this morning... She doesn't want to interfere, and her daughter would be mortified if she knew that she was writing to us, but, well, some of the things she has told mum over the phone have left her worried. And I quote, because, paraphrase cannot do it justice.

Incident #1:

The room she is staying in seems to belong to her hostess (N's) dad (I assume divorced?) Her boyfriend (R) let a man into my daughter's room one evening (she was lying down) and introduced him as N's dad who is staying with neighbors for the duration of her visit. He proceeded to remove his trousers and took a fresh pair from the dresser and put them on. My daughter thought this was very unusual and said the man talked to her throughout as if it was a normal routine thing and he left immediately after.

Incident #2

My daughter also told me that one evening she was asked to stay in her room until N and R called her to come out. Well she was sick and lay down but after what she said was a long period of time, she became thirsty and thought she would just pop into the kitchen to get a drink. She found R & N in a compromising situation on the kitchen floor and fled back to her room. Afterward, they took her to get her cell phone and helped her set it up before bed-time.

It came with the alternating text colors and everything.

We're thinking this might be the best thing that has happened to this girl....